Posts from December 2008

Japanese Music: J-pop

Posted by Ginny 2 Comments
Dec 15 2008

J-pop is a shortened form of the word Japanese pop.  The term J-pop came into existence in the 1990s, in response to the spread of Japanese pop culture, music and entertainment throughout eastern and southeastern Asia.  J-pop is a familar and prominent feature of Japanese entertainment.  TV commericials, movies and video games often contain the most up-to-date and popular pop songs.  J-pop also has a huge influence upon the fashion and cosmetic industries.  It’s all over the place and virtually difficult to ignore.

One of the common features of J-pop include flamboyant outfits and over the top hair and makeup.  I would describe it as the type of fashion that I would never be caught dead wearing, or the type of fashion that will make you a social outcast very quickly in suburban America.  Usually female artists fall in one of the three categories.  Either you’re very cute, very sexy, or very serious.  Basically there’s a genre for everyone and for every age.

Some of the most successful and visible J-pop artists happen to be female solo artists like  Ayumi Hamazaki (あゆみ 浜崎).  I would compare Ayumi (あゆみ) to the Britney Spears of the J-pop industry, minus the mental mess.  Though only twenty-five years old, Hikaru Utada (ヒカル 宇多田) has been in the J-pop scene for ten years.  She started her career with dance tracks then moved to more mature, slow tempo ballad type songs.  I would say she’s the Mariah Carey of Japan, minus the vocal range.

Remember boy bands like the Backstreet Boys and N’sync?  Well in Japan the boy band phrase is still going strong and very much in demand -almost to a fanical/stalker-need-to-check-in-hospital type degree.  Johnny’s Jimusho (ジャニーズ事務所) is a talent agency that holds the undisputed title in churning out boy bands like butter is churned out into the market.  Boy bands like SMAP are still popular, despite the fact that some of the members are in their thirties.

Of course, there are many more singers/boy bands that I haven’t discussed, but are nonetheless plenty popular in the J-pop scene.  Honestly, there’s too many to list.  One thing is clear, J-pop’s popularity isn’t going to fade away any time soon.  Maybe you’re not a J-pop fan.  Even so, you’ve probably heard about one or two songs or singers from the J-pop scene.  That just goes to show, J-pop is everywhere, get used it!

Japanese History: Samurai (さむらい)

Posted by Ginny 1 Comment
Dec 13 2008

I recently watched a movie on dvd called The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise and Watanabe Ken.  It wasn’t too bad, and it rekindled my admiration for the samurai (さむらい) code.  First off, what is a samurai (さむらい)?  A samurai (さむらい) is a swordsman of noble rank.  The samurai (さむらい) class was actually created to serve and protect the lords.  If the lord was pleased with the samurai’s (さむらい) loyalty, the samurai (さむらい) could receive his own castle!

In many old lores, samurais (さむらい) are heroes who fight to protect the weak.  The idea of an honor code in which a samurai (さむらい) must abide by is Bushido (ぶしどう).  The honor code is what makes up a great part of the lore around samurai (さむらい) tales.  The general rules of Bushido (ぶしどう) stress loyalty to one’s lord, dedication to swordsmanship, and maintaining one’s honor until death. 

The samurai (さむらい) class were really big on swords. (Sorry for stating the obvious!).  Many of the samurais (さむらい) had two swords.  The bigger sword was called the katana (かたな) and used to slaughter other people.  The smaller sword is the wakizashi (わきざし) and used upon oneself to commit seppuku (せつぷく).  (What an organized way of killing!)  Seppuku (せつぷく) is a form of ritual suicide where the samurai plunges a wakizashi (わきざし) into his stomach.  Sometimes after a defeat in battle, a samurai (さむらい) would be able to keep his dignity by committing seppuku (せつぷく).  You might ask, why not take some poison and die that way?  Well back in those days dying a tortuous death was considered brave and honorable of a samurai (さむらい).

Not all samurais (さむらい) were men of honor.  Some had violent tempers and were feared for their use of the sword as a means to solve problems.  Sure, we all have someone we dislike at work, but most people wouldn’t go and lop their co-worker’s head off for an off-hand remark.  The unpredictability of a samurai (さむらい) wielding a sword and the desire for peace led to the downfall of the samurai (さむらい).  In the Meji (めじ) era, carrying a sword was forbidden and the class of samurai (さむらい) slowly died out.

Whatever you think of the samurai (さむらい) past, the samurai (さむらい) are here to stay.  There are more movies, books, anime (アニメ) on samurai (さむらい) now than there ever have been, and it will probably continue to be so forever.

Japanese Writing System

Posted by Ginny 4 Comments
Dec 12 2008

For those of you who are completely new to the Japanese language, this post might be interesting to you.  The Japanese language consists of three different writing systems.  Learning all three writing systems is one of the challenges that Japanese learners face. 

Let’s start with the most common writing system, the hiragana (ひらがな).  Hiragana (ひらがな) letters are used to express native Japanese words.  The hiragana (ひらがな) consist of letters that represent different syllables.  For example, this letter あ is used to represent the sound ‘a’ as in the ‘a’ in the English word ‘aunt.’ 

The second writing system is the katakana (かたかな).  The katakana (かたかな) is used to express foreign words and is also syllable based.  For example, ア is used to express the sound ‘a’ as in ‘aunt.’  Interestingly enough, the word for ‘China’ in Japanese is expressed in hiragana (ひらがな) while the word for ‘America’ is expressed in katakana (かたかな).  Although both words are the name of countries, the word for China has been active in the Japanese language since olden days.  Japan’s contact with the U.S. is relatively recent, especially when you compare it with Japan’s contact with China.  As a result, the word for America is considered a loan word in Japanese.

Also, you might see this symbol ー when you’re reading katakana (かたかな) letters.  That dash is not part of the katakana (かたかな) alphabet.  That dash is more like a notation to indicate that the vowel is prolonged.  For example, the word for cake in Japanese is keeki (ケーキ).  Notice the dash after the character ke (ケ) .  Whenever you see the dash after a character, the character before the dash is the vowel that is elongated.  So instead of pronouncing this word as keki (ケキ) it is pronounced as keeki (ケーキ).  In this case the ‘e’ vowel is prolonged.

Both the hiragana (ひらがな) and the katakana (かたかな) have characters with diacritical marks.  For example the character ka (か) becomes a ga (が) with the symbol that looks like a quotation mark ”.  Similarly, when the character ha (は) has a diacritical mark that looks like a small circle, it will turn into pa (ぱ).  The diacritical marks indicate that unvoiced consonants such as k and h will turn into g and p respectively.

Lastly, let’s get to the third writing system, the kanji (かんじ).  The kanji (かんじ) is used to express nouns and adjectives.  It’s primarily used to express the meaning of words rather than express the sounds of words.  For example, with a pictorial symbol such as this: 日 the reader would understand that the Japanese word for ’day’ is being expressed without having to write the actual sounds for the word ‘day’ in Japanese.  Kinda cool huh?  The kanji (かんじ) is useful when you have to read and decipher a long sentence in Japanese.  Sometimes there is no space between words and the kanji (かんじ) can help to clarify and break up the sentence into understandable chunks.

The Japanese writing system is learnable.  Even though it may seem complicated at first, practicing will give you an intuitive feel for the language and help you to gain fluency.  So practice, practice, practice everyone!

Japanese Numbers: Suuji (すうじ)

Posted by Ginny No Comments
Dec 11 2008

Learning Japanese suuji (すうじ) or numerals can be confusing and daunting at the same time.  In particular, the number four can pose some tricky problems.  Do not fear, I’m here to save the day!  Aren’t you glad I’m here!  Haha, just kidding.  Let’s go on with our discussion of numbers.

For starters, the numeral four can be pronounced in three different ways.  It can be pronounced as yon (よん), shi (し) and yo (よ). 

When you want to say four o’clock in Japanese, you have to use yo (よ).  Next, add the counter or word for o’clock to the number four, and you have the word for four o’clock.  Altogether it’s going to sound something like this: yoji (よじ).

Let’s say you want to say four minutes in Japanese.  Unfortunately you can’t use yo (よ) to designate the four in four minutes.  You have to use yon (よん).  Add the counter for minutes, and you get yonpun (よんぷん). 

If you want to say April (as in the month) in Japanese, you can’t use yo (よ) or yon (よん).  You gotta use shi (し).  The months are named after the ordinal numbers in Japanese.  Since April is the fourth month out of the year, it’s going to be named after the numeral four.  Add the counter for month gatsu (がつ) to the shi (し) and you get shigatsu (しがつ).

The number four is really an interesting number.  It’s also a source of superstition for the Japanese people.  The word ‘death’ is actually pronounced as shi (し).  In some hospitals, the entire fourth floor is omitted.  In some elevators as well, the fourth floor is omitted; with the fifth floor following the third floor.  Since the number four reminds people of the word ‘death,’ Japanese people feel that the number four may bring bad luck.  If you’re planning on giving gifts this holiday season, try to avoid giving a gift in fours.  I’m actually planning on attending a wedding this year and giving a set of dishes as a present.  Instead of giving the dishes in a set of four, I’m going to present it in a set of five.  A set of three would also work as well, just as long as it’s not four.

Ok, well that’s it for today.  Expect more posts in the future!

Japanese Food: Shoochuu (しょうちゅう)

Posted by Ginny 4 Comments
Dec 9 2008

Next to sake (さけ) shoochuu (しょうちゅう) is easily one of the more preferred alcoholic drinks in Japan.  A lot of people mistake shoochuu (しょうちゅう) for sake (さけ), but the two are very different from each other.  Shoochuu (しょうちゅう) is a lot stronger than sake (さけ) in terms of alcohol content.  Kyuushuu (九州) an island province in Japan, is famous for its shoochuu (しょうちゅう) breweries.  However, shoochuu (しょうちゅう) is sold everywhere in Japan, so you don’t have to go all the way to Kyuushuu (九州) to get it.

Like sake (さけ), there are different varieites of shoochuu (しょうちゅう).  For example, I recommend the imojoochuu (芋焼酎), which is a shoochuu (しょうちゅう) made from distilled sweet potatoes.  Generally speaking the imojoochuu (芋焼酎) has a sharp taste.  It’s hard to explain, but the imojoochuu (芋焼酎) has a nutty, almond-like flavor.  Depending on the manufacturer, imojoochuu (芋焼酎) can have a strong smell as well.  I personally prefer imojoochuu (芋焼酎) with a muted smell, but either way the taste doesn’t change.

My next favorite shoochuu (しょうちゅう) is kokutoojochuu (黒糖焼酎).  Kokutoojoo (黒糖焼酎) is made from distilled brown sugar.  You might be interested to know that kokutoojochuu (黒糖焼酎) is actually made from kooji (麹) or mold that has been formed from rice.  The kooji (麹) is actually not the main ingredient in kokutoochuu (黒糖焼酎).  The kooji (麹) is responsible for breaking down the brown sugar so that it dissolves.  For those of you who were put off by the kooji (麹) or mold, I can assure you kokutoochuu (黒糖焼酎) tastes just fine.  It’s not too sweet and it’s not too bitter.  It’s somewhere in the middle between the two extremes.

Just to warn you, the legal drinking age in Japan is 20.  Some of you may not be able to drink, but don’t worry there are plenty of things to eat and drink in Japan other than alcohol.  So stay tuned for future posts.

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